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Post by Miles on Aug 25, 2013 5:57:05 GMT
Some ants do fly after dark, at least here in the United States! Tetramorium caespitum in the US are known to fly from 3 am through 7 am.
I know Mordam from the US forums has caught Crematogaster queens after dark under light poles. They can be useful for ant collection.
It'd be interesting to see if you guys over in the UK can witness the same behavior with your Tetramorium. Anybody live near a mature colony? It'd be worth a shot to try and document a nighttime nuptial flight next spring.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Aug 25, 2013 7:58:52 GMT
Some ants do fly after dark, at least here in the United States! Tetramorium caespitum in the US are known to fly from 3 am through 7 am. In my experience of 50 years of ant hunting, I have never seen UK species fly during the hours of darkness. I have seen Leptothorax fly at sunset when the dusk was making the landscape cooler; but it was still light enough to watch the alates mate. I am not disputing that ants in other countries can, or do fly after dark; it just doesn't seem to be the case here in Britain. Although it would be interesting to see if very bright street lights make a difference to some of our native wildlife when it comes to certain behaviour.  |
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Post by Miles on Aug 26, 2013 16:03:25 GMT
Interesting! Have you seen Tetramorium nuptial flights?
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Post by Wood~Ant on Aug 26, 2013 16:10:21 GMT
Interesting! Have you seen Tetramorium nuptial flights? In parts of southern England, yes I have! They all happened during the late afternoon into early evening. As this was in areas where there wasn't a street light for miles I cannot say if they ever continued after dark, but I doubt that ants fly in the UK at night. This however has nothing to do with this topic as such.  |
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Post by Miles on Aug 26, 2013 16:21:33 GMT
More interesting yet! Tetramorium here in the US, like I've said, try to fly during the night. Cool that they have different habits across the Atlantic!
It has a little to do with it? Hehe sorry for hijacking your thread.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Aug 26, 2013 16:52:58 GMT
No problem Miles, as the posts about Tetramorium flights have now been moved into a new thread to cover this subject.  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2013 15:32:07 GMT
The only times I've ever seen a Tetramorium flight was in the morning, around 8:30, a couple of years ago whilst walking to school.
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Post by Black Ant on Sept 14, 2013 16:03:47 GMT
The only times I've ever seen a Tetramorium flight was in the morning, around 8:30, a couple of years ago whilst walking to school. We don't get this species in my area as it is too far north.  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2013 14:45:41 GMT
The only times I've ever seen a Tetramorium flight was in the morning, around 8:30, a couple of years ago whilst walking to school. We don't get this species in my area as it is too far north. Ah, shame. They are quite cool ants but it's hard to find queens. |
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